Local News

Fire and rescue skills on display

Orbost Secondary College Advance CFA students continued their interaction with local primary schools recently when they attended an evacuation drill at the Newmerella Primary School to demonstrate their fire fighting and rescue skills to the assembled students.

Advance is a program run through secondary schools, in conjunction with an external provider, to expand students’ horizons beyond the classroom. Orbost Secondary College has had the benefit of local CFA members from Orbost and Newmerella brigades conducting fire fighting training for the last 20 years.

The current intake consists of years eight and nine students undertaking their first year of training, with students in years 10 and 11 in their second and third years assisting with instruction.

The school evacuation exercise was planned entirely by two of the year 11 students, Matthew Woerz and Daniel Answer-Waddell. Matthew has recently signed up with the Newmerella brigade, while Daniel is completing his formal training to become a fully qualified fire fighter with the Orbost brigade.

As if there was a real emergency at the school, two Newmerella brigade fire appliances accompanied the students.

To the delight of the watching primary school students, they sprayed water on the building, found two ‘missing’ students and performed a rescue. The exercise concluded with an entertaining talk on fire safety in the home from Newmerella brigade member, Des Ryan, who was captain of the brigade from 1995 to 2015.

School staff were pleased to be able to conduct a successful evacuation exercise, while the Advance instructors were delighted to be able to demonstrate how well the students had trained in their fire fighting and rescue skills in only seven months.

In addition to learning how local volunteer brigades interact with their communities, the students are also learning how CFA brigades work with other emergency services. They have visited the Marlo Coast Guard and Orbost SES. A visit to the new ambulance station is scheduled and future engagements with Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning personnel and vehicles are also planned.

PICTURED: The Orbost Secondary College Advance students demonstrated their rescue skills during an evacuation drill.